By Seyi Odewale
The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Kukah, yesterday said Nigerian youths will determine the next year’s general election, adding that there is a job ahead of them.
Kukah, who disclosed this yesterday on a Channel television programme, Politics Today, said there is a job for the youth as this is their moment.
He said they can break down the wall of criminality, regionalism, and limitless opportunity to thrive.
According to the Catholic bishop, the presidential system of government currently run is not meant for this society as it is prone to corruption and abuse.
On the choice of who should be the next president in the next presidential election, he said every presidential candidate must be made to appear before the public platform and be subjected to serious grilling for the electorate to make the right choice.
To him, the choice of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket was reprehensible, adding that it may have a backlash.
President Muhammadu Buhari, he said, has, unfortunately, not said anything about it.
On the choice of the Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong, who is a Catholic, as the Director-General of the Bola Tinubu Presidential Campaign Organisation, Kukah said Governor Lalong has the right to his choice to accept the job of pushing a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
According to him, the governor in question is a lawyer, a former Speaker, and a serving governor, adding that he must have made his choices consciously and that no one should begrudge him over his acceptance of the position to head the Tinubu campaign.
Lalong has come under criticism for accepting to lead the campaign in an arrangement where some Christians within the party and across the country have said the APC refused to recognise the sensibilities of the Christian population.
But on Wednesday, Lalong said the Pope, who is the Head of the Catholic Church worldwide, has not told him that he was wrong to take the job.
Kukah said the governor must be left to enjoy his right to freely choose, he, however, added that the Tinubu campaign boss must bear in mind that Nigerians are now more sensitive to issues such as religion than at any other time in the country’s recent political history.
He said if Lalong had consulted him for advice on the issue, he might have had a different position and could have advised him, adding that it was too late to comment on the governor’s choices since he had already made them.
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The Catholic Bishop also said Nigerians must keep their eyes on the ball and not be distracted by issues that would make it impossible to monitor the real issues in the next general elections.
“Governor Lalong is a reputable lawyer and was a speaker. He is also the governor of Plateau state. I think we must also not get too over-excited about the kind of choices that people make.
“The important thing is for us to live with the consequences of the choice that we make. People need to have a chance to make up their minds to know what they want. So, for me, Governor Lalong made a choice.
“This is not something we should waste so much time on because I think the party has made a decision. He has accepted the job. He feels very strongly about it and is committed. I don’t think that should take anything away from him as a person but that is also not to forget that Christians across this country have become quite sensitive in certain realities,” Kukah said.
He noted that the responsibility of the government was to manage the different identities Nigerians have in terms of religions and tribes, adding that he felt proud of the role being played in managing the nation’s diversities.
Kukah cited some periods in the nation’s history when the leadership had produced Muslims as the country’s leaders, citing the Buhari/Idiagbon era and the 1993’s MKO Abiola/Babagana Kingibe candidacy.
He, however, asked if the Muslims would be ready to make such a consensus Christians made in 1993 with the candidacy of Abiola and Kingibe.
